At some point in our lives, we’ve all heard that old saying: “When life throws you lemons, make some lemonade.”

These days life’s been pelting us all with lemons. These aren’t gentle throws of lemons; they’ve been put into a batting cage baseball launcher, they’re coming at us full bore, and we’re not wearing any body protection. Life has weaponized lemons and it’s got a bad case of schadenfreude at our expense. We also can’t even make a single drop of lemonade from them.

I’m talking, of course, about the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic.

I’ve never been involved in a pandemic before. I decided to look up the actual definition of the word; I knew vaguely that it was “worse than an epidemic”… but how much worse? Well, “epidemic” refers to a disease affecting a given area, and '“pandemic” refers to the whole world. Yup, I’d say that’s worse.

I’ve seen movies about pandemics; Contagion and Outbreak come to mind. They’re both great movies, but I don’t want to watch them at all right now. Ironically, my Amazon Prime Video app on my Roku is suggesting a number of “plague” movies as ones I should watch, most of which I’d never heard of, and doubt I’ll be watching anytime soon. I’m also not watching a lot of the news coverage; I’m getting my updates from social media and the internet. I prefer to get my updates in bite-size pieces I can handle.

It seems as if we’re all divided as to how to handle this situation. There are the “gloom and doom” folk, who think this is the end of life as we know it, and their only course of action is to hoard toilet paper. I can understand hand sanitizer, cleaning products, soap, etc… but toilet paper? I mean, let’s get real for a moment… COVID-19 is not a gastrointestinal virus. I just don’t understand the logic behind that. There are also some folks that don’t even acknowledge that this pandemic is even a thing. Someone shared a post on Facebook showing a video of a young guy (probably college age) saying he and some friends had gone down to Florida for spring break, and he basically didn’t seem to care that the virus was spreading. In the video he said “Hey, if I get sick, I get sick” which, I agree with to an extent. The bigger issue is that if this person does get sick he’d be a walking replicator for the virus, and will most likely get others sick.

The point I’m making is this: This isn’t the end of the world. Life will go on. As Ian Malcolm said in Jurassic Park, “Life finds a way.” We’ll find our way, we’ll get through this, as long as we all work together. Following the guidelines that have been beaten into us by now; washing the hands, social distancing, staying home, etc. We’re all in this together.

The silver lining here, is that this virus’ symptoms are akin to the flu, but “a flu with a bad attitude.” Those without underlying health issues or compromised immune systems will most likely come out on the other end of this just fine.

I take the usual precautions when going out. I carry a little bottle of hand sanitizer with me and use it while going from place to place. I wash my hands for 20 seconds when coming back from being out. I’m keeping conscious of what I’m touching, and not touching my face. It’s really not that bad.

Having to remain isolated and sequestered in my apartment while waiting for this to clear up… that’s a topic for another discussion. I will say that it kinda sucks, but I’m making the best of it.

I hope everyone stays safe out there. Keep those hands clean, cough into your shoulder, keep your distance… we’ll make it through as long as we all work together.